Tears to water Rose
by Butterflies765
Summary: Jason had messed up his life. Piper had left, with an important secret. When they meet 4 years later, can they reunite like before? And what about Rose? And when Aphrodite starts to meddle... PAUSED sorry...
1. Chapter 1

**A/N Hey everyone! I'm Butterflies765! **

**Thank you so much for just clicking on my fanfic!**

**First time ever I'm writing one! So please excuse my lack of originality in the story, spelling mistakes, bad grammar, illogical sentences and terrible updating schedule.**

**I really hope you're going to enjoy this.**

**Comments and critics are more than welcome, I'd love to hear your opinion!**

**Also, I write British English so I spell a couple of words different such as colour!**

**Anywho enough with me blabbing and on with the story!**

**Disclaimer: the plot is mine, the rest belongs to our favourite author Rick Riordan.**

Piper's POV

Piper sipped her coffee, nice and strong; no sugar, no milk, she sure wasn't a wimp. Of course, it was only the best Peruvian coffee, organic fair trade and everything that went with that. That coffee was probably the only thing she indulged in. It was so expensive, but she made it up by never going shopping or spending money on useless products such as makeup. She'd followed that life before and had found that her expenses would add up way too high. Therefore, a nice sensible life of being natural and not ruining your skin was better for both herself and her wallet. Especially since she wasn't the person who needed the most money in her house.

She was staring at the calendar, a pretty little thing covered in childish drawing and drowning underneath at least three bottles of liquid glue and about 300 sequins. Today was her dating anniversary. Her friends would probably ask: 'your dating anniversary with whom? You're such a pretty girl you've probably had ten thousands boyfriends!' But no. She wasn't the sort of person who went around, constantly with a boyfriend. And anyway there had been one. Only one. But he was just a irresponsible drunkard, a cheater and a little ball of - you get the idea. He sure had been enough for at least another 10 years. She had other priorities in her life than getting a boyfriend and wasting her time and money. That was why she didn't tell them, or anything from her younger years. They were too painful. But also, who would believe them?

The story of a the daughter of Tristan McLean. That at least they would believe. Heck if they hadn't already found out they were blind as moles! But nobody had ever mentioned it and she was grateful. She hated the attention it brought her and everything that went with it, from signing autographs to being introduced. He was her father for goodness' sake! Though she had to admit she was spending a lot of time with him lately, as she could really use the help.

No, that definitely wasn't the part of her childhood she had to hide. It was rather the other half of her DNA. Her mother, Aphrodite to be precise. Piper had never really felt a connection wit her mother, she was just so far and distant, only coming to see her when she was possibly going to do someone of her romantic life, or just telling her to dress better, wear makeup, see some guys or other pointless advice. She generally left by magically giving piper a makeover and dress, as she just loved to do, before disappearing to Olympus for another three months or so. So much for having a mother as a goddess.

And then, there was all that was included by being a demigod. The monsters. The quests. The battles. The deaths. So many horrible and unbelievable things. She still didn't really understand how she survived it all, when so many other had failed in the task. She supposed that it was thanks to her charmspeak, her special ability inherited from mother dearest and had made her uncomfortable amongst her friends. Nowadays, she tried her best not to use it. Not to manipulate people and she had once done. But every so often, she would slip and she remembered everything from her past once again. And the people in her past. And a certain person out of all the people. One who she hoped she would never have to deal with again.

She could keep all of that quiet. That was old Piper. New Piper was everything normal, apart from a few exceptions. And a couple of random monsters. The only thing that she still had from before was Annabeth. Now things hadn't always been easy with Annabeth. But over the years, the two of them has formed an unbreakable friendship. The amazing woman Annabeth had now become had helped her through the most difficult parts of her life. She knew the blonde kept her secret faithfully, and the others didn't know Annabeth and her still met up.

Suddenly, she felt a small tugging, one that came from an even smaller hand, on her shirt.

'Mommy! I am awake!' The little girl announced proudly, though Piper was sure that the supposed nap had only lasted about thirty minutes and that the little girl had been quietly playing until the requested hour of being awake.

'Rose ! I thought I told you nap time was until the clock had the numbers 3, 3 and 0?!'

'Mommy, it is 3, 3 and 0!'

Piper checked the time on the oven, blinking eternally green in their small kitchen and saw that she was right. Had she really been in her thinking for that long? The answer was yes. The coffee was cold now. She tipped the rest of it down the sink and proceeded to rinse the cup, a mechanical action of one of the many times she did this per day, it was her secret vice.

'All right. Now, Rosie sweetie, go wash your hands and then we'll have a snack!'

Rose's eyes sparkled, green, blue, brown, black and purple as well as a multitude of other shades and colours going through the rainbow in just one blink. The girl's eyes were a crayon box. Just like her own. Her little blonde pig tails carefully fastened with pink bows (the result of a tantrum in the shop two days ago. Not that Piper was a bad mother, she just really needed the break) bobbled behind her as she ran to the bathroom. They were slightly disheveled and the young mother decided that if they had the time, she would redo them, one of the little girl's favourite activities. As her eyes were the only thing they had in common, people often wondered if the child was truly hers. Her fair skin and hair showed otherwise as she took after her father but Piper always gave a cold glare towards the people who inquired. Of course it was her own precious baby child! And how dare they think otherwise! Piper had to admit she was a little touchy on that subject. Who cared how much she looked like her father. She was hers and nothing in the world would ever change that.

And that was the reason she spent so little money on anything that was to be solely hers. The young mother needed every cent she could get her hands on to raise her daughter to be a proud young lady in the dangerous world out there. She could have gotten money from her mother or her father but her pride told her otherwise. She could manage just fine, thank you very much! But she immensely relied on her father to help her raise the child. She had a lot of respect for him, who raised her on his own.

Also, her darling Rose was the child of two powerful demigods. Though the little girl wasn't showing many abilities just yet, Piper could've sworn the child sometimes used charmspeak to avoid bath time, and storms were definitely her favourite weather (a thing which she heartily discouraged). Let aside powers, there was also the constant threat from monsters. Two demigods in the same house was bad, but Piper needed the child next to her. She often had trouble trusting the nursery where the little girl was placed (though she had checked every employees profile and assured herself that they had a minimum knowledge in self defence, and first aid, and a list of other things that were absolutely necessary to her daughter's safety).

'Done!' A quirky voice said.

'Cool! Now, where are those delicious cookies?'

Jason's POV

Jason sipped his coffee, well, it was rather a hot chocolate now. He only filled the cup half with coffee and then proceeded to pour in milk, two sugars and a lot of melted white chocolate. It was his sweet tooth that made him destroy the drink coffee, but he wouldn't had it any other way. His friends joked about him not being a man for refusing to take his coffee dark, but it was just way to bitter for him.

He was staring at the calendar, which was a bland old thing, with no pictures except a solitary gray rock. Today was his dating anniversary with Piper, the best thing that had ever happened to him. But she was with him no longer. And all of it, every single little problem they had ever had was his fault. No one else's. He would have liked to throw the blame on someone else, many times he had blamed Piper for what he had done. But he was lying to himself.

About 4 years ago, he was still with Piper. Everything was perfect. They were both 23 and they were finishing their studies, alternating between training at camp and university. Piper was just finishing her course in economics with flying colours. She didn't know what she was going to do afterwards but she was happy and confident. Jason too, had been studying, meteorological science, and preparing his thesis as to join up an important weather research lab. Of course, it was interesting to find out about what mortals thought was the cause to all the different phenomenons. It really was an interesting course, and frankly, he found it quite logical despite knowing better. During the holidays and the summer, he and Piper would be at camp and trained the newest Demi-gods to prepare them to an unforgiving world. The pair of them regularly fought off the various monsters that came and attacked them, as they lived together, and the more demigods together, the more risk there is that they would be attacked.

But then things had started to go downhill for him. Jason just liked to enjoy himself to much. Every party that some one suggested he was up to. And there were so many! It was like I keep never ending fun! And the things you could do at a party. Ever since he could legally drink, Jason had been enjoying every drop he could get. One shot there, another one here. Some more beer, what about a cocktail? It made him forget all the worries about exams and whether or not his future was sure. Sometimes, it made him forget Piper. Sure, he loved her, but he was so stupid, he thought he could do anything and that she would never mind. She never came to the parties and more than once did she have to drive out to find him completely drunk at some random stranger's party. He knew she hated when he did that, but Piper respected the fact that he needed some stress relief.

From then, it became even worse. Jason needed the alcohol. He felt he couldn't manage the week, the weekend without one swig. He became addicted. His friends tried to get him off, but he continued to go to parties and drink, and drink, and drink. Piper tried to get him away from it but he just shrugged her off. Maybe if she had used her charmspeak it would've worked, but she refused to manipulate. He started to buy the stuff, drink at home. The money was even tighter, Piper was always worried. But he always made it up to her. In the moments he was sober, he'd take her on fabulous dates, and then kiss her senseless and then... Well you get the idea. His grades went down. The university talked of kicking him out. But he didn't care. The alcohol fairy brought him so much more joy and relief.

And then there was that fateful night.

The one where he ruined everything they ever had.

It was one more party, one more drink, one more shot. The music was loud and the lights were flashy and hypnotising, with there million colours, just like her eyes. Then suddenly she appeared. It was Drew. In a skimpy black little thing, with a ton of makeup on. But Jason had been drunk. And even if he hadn't been, he was in a constant state of drowsiness. So when she slithered up to him and suggested they raise a glass to the good old days back at camp, why, he hadn't said no.

So when she writhed her body all around his and grabbed his jaw and kissed him ferociously, why, he hadn't said no. It was for the good old days. And Drew was so pretty. He'd kissed her back and she led him into a room upstairs. He couldn't resist and had ripped her clothes off.

"What about Piper?" She'd murmured into his lips.

"Who?" And they'd just laughed it off.

And then Piper came in.

He didn't know how she had known he was there. And all came down in him. He had Drew naked in his arms. And wasn't necessary to say that he had crossed the line. Piper broke down into tears and ran away while Jason was desperately trying to get his pants on. He ran after, called after her, but she was long gone.

He'd never seen her again.

That night, he'd tried to go back to their apartment but he had been locked out. When he came back the next morning, it was as though Piper had never even lived there. He'd called her countless times, texted her, did everything. But she blocked his number, probably changed hers too. She changed all her social media accounts. And everything he did to tell her he was sorry, everything was pointless.

She even disappeared from all her friends. She cut all connections because of Jason. It was as if she knew that if she was still friends with the others, he would try to talk to her. She was right in a way. No one in the mythological world knew where she was. Except maybe her mother, but seeing that she was a goddess, it wasn't like she was going to help him in his stupid mortal affairs. And even though the goddess of love loved to meddle in Piper's romantic life, he never heard from her. And then there was Annabeth. Annabeth must've known what happened, but being one of the best and most loyal friends he knew, it was sure that she was never going to betray her best friend.

He missed her. So much. It hurt.

But he deserved it.

Bing! Bing! The oven timer ringed and the shrill sound brought him back from sad-memory-land and back into the even crueler real world. The pizza was ready.

**A/N So! What did you think? Once again I'd love to hear your opinion!**

**I (hopefully will be putting up chap 2 but I won't promise anything.**

**Love you all for reading,**

**Butterflies765**


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N Hey there everybody!**

**Thanks to everyone who's taken the time to read/favourite/follow this story! It really means so much for me.**

**As is mentioned in my profile, don't hesitate to ask to translate this in french!**

**_J'insiste aussi sur le fait de me demander si vous voulez une traduction en français de cette histoire, même si cela ne devrait pas tarder._**

**So without further ado, here is chapter two (that rhymes!)**

**Disclaimer: I own the plot, the rest clearly belongs to Rick Riordan**.

Piper's POV.

Beep! Beep! Piper's alarm was ringing. There seemed to happening something with her and alarms lately. They were always ringimg.

Yesterday afternoon had finished in a nice comfortable walk around Central Park. It also includes a lengthy stop at a playground and weirdly yummy applle ice cream. Rose had insisted on it even though a) snack time had already gone by and b) what sort of flavour was Apple. But Rose was happy. And that's really all that mattered to Piper.

There had been one small thing that nudged the back of her mind at 6:30 on Monday morning, knowing she had exactly two minutes before a certain little monkey would come climbing all over her ed.

Rose had been in the playground when a little boy came and joined her play in the sandpit. Eventually the little boy had to leave as his parents were calling.

"Daddy! I wanna stay!" Had cried the little boy. And then Rose had looked at him funny but continued playing. Piper sat there smiling, content when her daughter ran up to her. She had a worried look in her eyes.

"Mommy, why don't I have a daddy?"

"A what darling? I didn't hear."

"A daddy. All of my friends at nursery have one."

Piper was completely taken aback by the simple question. She silently laughed at herself. How could she have been so stupid to think the girl would never ask. But it was surprising that the girl would ask the exact date of their dating anniversary. She braced herself for a difficult answer.

"Your daddy did bad things, darling. And if he knew you, he would maybe be bad to you too. You don't want that do you?"

"Oh," the little girl had her mouth open in a perfect circle. One could observe the information slowly processing in her brain. "Ok!" And then she smiled and hopped off, returning to her game in the sandcastle.

She sighed a little, hoping that the subject wasn't going to come back, but her daughter was rather empathetic and knew whenever something upset her mother. She probably wouldn't push the subject, already so intelligent for a little girl, only 4 years old.

Sure enough, she heard light footsteps plodding down the hall and tiptoeing into her bed.

"Hey there darling!" She whispered as she grabbed the little girl and started to tickle her.

"Mommy! Mommy!" She laughed with glee.

"Alright let's get breakfast shall we? How about some pancakes!"

"Yaaaayyyy!"she shouted. Piper grimaced at the other great sugary idea she had just had. Gods knew she was giving in to her daughter's sweet tooth! She knew it was bad to spoil a child, but sugar didn't count a spoiling did it? And her smile was soooo cute.

Monday morning. Piper had to go and work. She was running an organic restaurant which she had started herself from scratch. Entirely funded by herself. Well, that was a lie. She did have a little help from her father in the beginning because property in New York is expensive. She generally was a waitress because she was naturally very sociable, but as she was also the boss, she did all the paperwork, managed the money, designed new recipes, hired employees. That economics course was useful! The restaurant was quite successful and she was thinking about opening another one in Brooklyn. Meanwhile, the money earned was invested in a brand new aisle of organic makeup. Her mother had insisted on that one, and Piper agreed to it, mainly because she too thought it was a good idea.

But today was going to be a little different than the usual holidays. It was autumn break at the nursery. And though one might think that surely day care would be an option, Piper had never yet found someone to take care of her child. Well, that was competent enough. She also couldn't hire a nanny, not enough money. But thankfully, the girl was wonderfully patient and independent. So, Piper, like almost every other holiday decided to take her to work.

"Alright Rose, how do you feel about going to my restaurant?"

"Yay! I love going to the restaurant!" The little girl shrieked. "Can I to drawings again like the last time?"

"Of course darling, now come on. Grab your coat. It's getting chilly outside."

The employees at the restaurant sure didn't mind when Rose came over. Actually, they loved her! They had been a bit surprised when she'd brought her over for the first time, when she was only an annoying toddler, barely 2 years old, and already walking around, bumping into everything and anything. They said she brought life to the restaurant.

She was 10 minutes early, as usual. She liked being early, it was a moment in the day when there were no customers and the room was oddly silent, but peaceful silence. Also, if the boss wasn't early, what sort of example was she to the others. Rose was a little intimated and clung to her leg, a worry that would disappear in less than five minutes, her mother knew.

"Hey Piper, what's up?" A friendly voice asked. It was Henri, a nice half-French half-American chef she had hired right at the beginning. He had been there longer than all the others. His hours always started early so that he could start preparing for the day.

"I'm fine thank you."

"And who's that behind your leg?"

Rose giggled a little and remained hidden behind her dark blue jean and leather boots.

"Why, if it isn't little Rose who desperately wants to be tickled!"

She giggled even louder and ran up to give Henri a hug. Piper left the two, seeing as they were really good friends. Henri was really good with children. If he wasn't such a fabulous chef, she probably would have asked him to be a waiter so that he could handle the children. The restaurant was very family friendly.

The young woman walked over to behind the kitchen where there was the clothing room, her desk and the toilets. She pushed the door to her desk and hung her coat up on her peg. She carefully placed her bag on her desk so that she wouldn't accidentally knock something off. After flicking through the day's mail, she grabbed her apron, a colourful blue checkered thing which one tied around their waste and checked her pad and signature purple pen were in the pockets before rushing back into the kitchen.

Henri and her daughter were still giggling when she suggested some drawing. Rose immediately accepted the idea and Piper hoisted her up on one of the tall chairs near the bar. She grabbed a piece of paper and some crayons and left her daughter, who was quietly humming to herself.

Next, Piper followed her daily routine and went outside to start setting up the tables. She decided not to use the parasols nor the heating lamps. It was a beautiful autumn day and you only really needed s nice woolly jumper whilst outside. She too hummed a little something as she set to her daily chores, waiting for 8 am when the clients would start streaming in, anxious to get their healthy organic smoothie in the morning.

Jason's POV

Jason had woken up feeling sad.

His dreams often influenced his emotions. And he had just had that same recurring dream for the third time that month. It always began really sweetly. A little girl was playing on a swing, her blond hair flying in the air and she was giggling with all her might. The child couldn't have been more than 4 or 5. He was pushing her higher and higher, so that she could fly up into the air. The park was deserted apart from them. And then suddenly, the dream got dark. A monster climbed out of a bush and started to attack them. The dream always finished with the girl's piercing cry.

He groaned and got up to go to work. Jason worked in a weather forecast channel. Though his dream had been to study meteorological conditions, he had messed up his studies pretty badly, and then those sort of jobs didn't running to streets all that much. So right now, he focused on writing the weather forecast that the presentation would eventually read out or learn off by heart. Maybe he would have liked present sting, but wasn't that just the best way to tell the entire monster population "look, I'm here!".

Off he trudged, doing his normal morning routine, going for a run, shower, quick breakfast, walk to work and do everything the same everyday so blandly. The most interesting things in Jason's life were probably when there was a natural catastrophe, though that just depressed him even more.

Later that day, he went out to lunch, because, once again, he had been to lazy to bring his own. He went down and made small talk with the secretary.

"Hey Linda, if anyone drops off something for me, could you put it on my desk please?"

"Of course Mr Grace," she replied, twirling her hair and giggling, "like every day."

Jason ignored her blatant flirting and stepped outside. It was a beautiful sunny day, with a lot of fluffy white clouds slowly moving with the gusts of wind. Jason loved this weather: sun and wind, though he did prefer thunderstorms, this definitely cam second best. He was roaming the streets of New York, wondering what he was possibly going to eat today when he inadvertently bumped into someone.

"Jason! How are you? How you been?"

The young man Jason had bumped into was no other than Percy Jackson. One of his closest friends he hasn't seen for some time.

"Percy, dude! I'm great, and you? I haven't seen you in a long time." That was true. They generally met every so often and had lunch together, but Percy had been gone for a month or two now. It was nice to see his friends at other moments than camp, though they were always extremely careful not to attract too many monsters. But he had to admit that he did like the adrenaline rush it brought him, making him forget his monotonous life.

"Crazy story with my sister! You'll never guess what she did this time."

"Lucy, is what, 10 now?"

"Yeah, she dared a boy to jump off a 5 meter high rock. When he refused to do it until she showed him it was possible, she did and broke her leg and wrist."

"Gods! Sally must've freaked!"

"Yeah, but she's fine now, and hobbling off in her crutches ready to pull some more dangerous stunts. By the way, Mom says you're welcome to pop over whenever you want. You know you're always welcome."

"Great! Thanks."

They continued chatting about their lives while walking down the street. Stories about Percy's little sister were always entertaining. She was lucky to have a great older brother to take care of her. Much like Thalia had been to him when they were younger.

Suddenly, Percy suggested something, "Hey, me, Leo and Frank are meeting up at this cool organic restaurant we just found. Would you like to come?"

"Of course."

Score! Jason had just found his lunch, and what better way to spend it than with his closest friends! Especially since he didn't see them that often. Frank had moved to New Orleans with Hazel and wasn't that often in New York. Leo on the other hand, still hadn't settled and was still visiting the world with Calypso, though he suspected the pair of them often hogged Percy's apartment. They didn't see each other that often, mostly at camp during the summer, and it was always a great time, when they could become annoying teenagers once again instead of mature adults.

They trodded down the streets, for what seemed an infinitely long amount of time to Jason, and he desperately tried to memorise his way around, so that he wouldn't be late when he tried to return to his office. Percy, on the other hand, seemed to know exactly what he was doing, which was rather strange, considering the fact that he was constantly getting lost. All was explained when Jason saw the phone in Percy's hand.

Finally, they arrived. The restaurant was a pretty little thing, with a wooden terrace and colourful plastic chairs and oak table. The sign was a bubbly multicolour one which indicated the name: "Cornucopia, only the best organic foods". He glanced at the menu that was carefully positioned in front of the terrace and saw a family-friendly menu, with tasty looking dishes, expertly photographed.

Percy led him to a table in a sunny spot where he saw Frank and Leo quietly talking.

"Hey guys!" He announced himself.

"Jason! Good to see you man!" Replied Leo.

"What's up?" Enquirer Frank.

"Good to see both of you too."

And the four of them settled in a friendly conversation while visually imagining every tasty dish on the menu, and discussing whether or not salad actually was considered a healthy diet choice. Because, one had to admit that salad sauce wasn't exactly the most healthy thing out there.

"I swear that if I eat more meat, I will be healthier than anyone on this table." Declared Leo.

"And what does Calypso say about that?" Smirked Percy.

"I swear that woman is singlehandedly responsible for over half the salad homicides in this country!"

"Do salad homicides actually exist?"

"Have you seen the way she looks at does things while mixing them with cucumber, tomato and other disgustingly healthy thing! Thank goodness this place has hamburgers!"

"Yeah who knew that meat could be organic?" Mused Jason.

"Well," butted in Frank (while Leo joked about him being Mr-I-Love-Animals), "the animals are fed an exclusively organic diet, and are generally kept in better conditions than other animals, with more space and air."

Jason nodded, impressed.

"There's a whole page about organic food at the beginning of the menu. I read it while trying to ignore Leo. It really is quite interesting. And in the other side, there is the restaurant's owner's bio, but I didn't have time to read."

"Great, thanks for the explanation, Frank."

Jason flipped over to the beginning of the menu. The first page had basically been summarised by his friend and therefore, he began to read the bio :

This young woman proudly shows her American-Indian heritage by preserving nature's way of bringing food and cooking it. The owner of this restaurant, the dashing-

His reading was cut short by a little blonde girl who was desperately tugging at his, with a very intent look in her eyes, a piece of paper in her hand.

"Will you look at my drawing?" And without waiting for an answer, she slammed the said drawing down on the table and began to explain her incoherent scribbles. Jason didn't really understand why she had come over to him, but her sweet little pigtails encouraged him to listen to her, as all of the other customers she had bothered before had done."

"So this is my mommy, and this is me, and this is daddy, who I don't know, and who mommy says is a very bad man." The sweet child pointed out the different people in her life with a chubby little finger.

"And those are flowers, and there are clouds, and that is the wind, and those are my 15 puppies-"

The little girl was warbling off, describing everything, while the others cooed at her drawing when suddenly a voice cried out:

"Rose, where are you?"

A waitress came over and stood behind the little girl, placing a protective hand over her shoulder, as though she could protect the younger one from all the harm in the world with her motherly affection.

"Oh there you are darling, now come on, let's stop bothering these men."

She then proceeded to take her pad from her apron still without looking at them. Jason was still looking at the little girl's drawing, as if mesmerised by the childish scribbles.

"Alright, what can I get you to-"

He looked up. Their eyes met.

It was Piper.

**A/N Thank you so much for reading!**

**I have to admit, the end of this scene was totally predictable, but I just love the concept of this story.**

**Please review! I'd love to here your opinions and critics!**

**See you (hopefully) soon for chap 3,**

**Butterflies765**


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N Hello lovelies!**

**Thank you everyone for ridding and following. To all those who have reviewed, I'm glad you like the story!**

**Well, this was a difficult chapter to write, but I've got some great ideas for what's going to follow.**

**The translation of this story should be coming soon, hopefully before the end of August!**

**Anyway, enough talking and now chapter 3!**

**Disclaimer: as always, unless something really weird happens, I do not own anything except the plot, the rest belongs to Rick Riordan.**

Piper's POV

Piper couldn't breathe.

Jason. In front of her very eyes. At one of her tables. In her restaurant.

In front of her… their… daughter.

She couldn't speak either. Everything was jumbled in her mind. How? Why? Who? The questions kept coming. That entire she had lived with him and after him came speeding back into her mind, slamming into her brain, making her dizzy and her eyes water.

The moment when she came back to her senses and was de-paralysed, she grabbed her daughter and rushed back into the kitchen where she forced her to sit down and ordered Henri not to let her wander off, in any situation, or else he was fired. The chef looked at her with questioning eyes but Piper couldn't see him. She couldn't see anything actually. Her eyes were flooded with tears.

Before anyone could say a word, or comment the boss' unusual reaction, Piper had already barged though the kitchen door and into her desk. After slamming the door shut, Piper moaned and let herself fall down, her back pressed against the door, crying every drop of water her body had ever contained.

Stupid! Stupid! Stupid! How could she have ever thought she would never have to meet him again? Why did she even pick New York as the adequate city to raise her daughter? She should have known he would eventually bump into her. Or the other way round. New York was a huge city. Probably one the hugest but still, it was a small world, and after 4 years of successful avoidance, the inevitable had come.

The memories had come flooding back. She remembered that day, the one where everything crumbled before her eyes.

She had gone to fetch him from the party, another one, just like all the one's before. She always came before they ended, just like a mother comes to fetch a child that has been naughty from a birthday party. One more party, one more and then she would start reprimanding him for his toxic ways.

When she had got there, she had known something was off. He wasn't lying dead drunk in one of the obscure corners of the room like every other time. Recognising one of his detestable friends, she had inquired to know where her boyfriend had disappeared. When the answer was upstairs, she immediately knew something was off. Jason never went upstairs.

She climbed the steps one by one, dread weighing her down. She saw the only room which had been opened. She pushed the door. And there he was. Naked, in her devilish half-sister's arm. It had been the same feeling as today. The sentiment of being incapable of doing anything else. She ran out of the room, out of the house, into the car. She drove away.

Once in the apartment, she had packed up everything during the night, ignoring Jason's calls when he had come knocking at the door. And in the morning all, was done. She called Annabeth and then stayed in her best friend's apartment.

Annabeth had helped her. She had given her a home when she needed it; support when her life had come crumbling down and she had kept her secret.

During the month or so that followed, Piper barely lived. She went to her lessons everyday, praying she wouldn't bump into the hated cheater, but he seemed to have disappeared from campus much to her relief. Her mother had come and visited but her help was pointless. The goddess of love was incapable of tending to her daughter's heart-break and had returned to being the silly absent mother she usually was.

And then, when there seemed to her that there would be not tomorrow, that despite all of her best friend's efforts, a world without Jason was pointless, something unexpected had happened. A ray of sun appeared in her never ending rain clouds.

She had realised that her period was late. And it dawned on her that there was a chance… Just a chance that not all was lost. The pregnancy test confirmed it.

Piper took it as a message from the gods to continue living. She had too. She had something to love and protect. It became her reason to live. The baby growing inside her reminded her that life was a constant cycle, and that this child was the beginning born from the end of something else.

She could also hide the other part of the child forever.

And so the unquenchable sorrow inside of her turned to hatred. She began eating normally again. She began studying normally again. She aced her exams. Everything went better. She did it all for the unborn child. When her birth came in the sweltering month of august, Piper had turned the page of the book of her life forever, and was more than glad to do so.

Until now.

There was a small knock on her door. Fearing the man she hated the most, she braced herself for the worst, but when a tiny little body slipped through, she was instantly relieved. Rose drew her mother into a tight hug and Piper clung to her as though she was never going to let go.

"Mommy," the little girl whispered. "Be strong."

The words deeply touched Piper. This was probably the best wisdom she had ever heard, and it had come out of the mouth a little four-year-old girl. Her daughter.

But she was right. She couldn't do like last time. She couldn't abandon everything, move home, change job, and make herself another personality. No, she had a child and that tied her down. She would have to go and face him.

But not just him, she realised. With him came so many other things. The whole part of her life which she had tried to forget, she was going to have to be a Demi-god again. Rose too was going to have to take up that role in her life. Piper had been hoping to protect her from it a little longer, until she was 12 maybe, but that just wasn't going to be possible anymore.

So she grabbed her courage with both hands, calmed the stormy ocean inside of her and stood up, her daughter in her arms.

"Rose, my darling. Mommy has to go and speak to someone. Now will you be a good girl and go do your colourings next to Henri?"

"But mommy, I left my best drawing next to the man over there."

"Don't worry. I'll get it for you." She replied quietly.

The two of them quietly returned to the kitchen. Piper placed her daughter on her chair for the fifth time that day, stuck a crayon in one hand and paper in the other and prepared to confront Rose's father. But not after she had checked her puffy red eyes in her mirror.

Jason's POV

Piper in front of him.

His Piper. In front of him.

The moment he had wished for, for so many years had finally arrived. And all he could do was stare. Even when she rushed out of the terrace and disappeared gods know where he was still there, as if struck by lightning.

Leo, Percy and Frank disappeared, as though they had never been there in the first place. Everything was Piper. It had always been Piper. Nothing else in the world was more important than Piper.

The shock of seeing her again slowly evaporated, but not entirely, just like salt water, which dries, but leaves the cling of salt to freshen wounds. It was replaced by the pain. The pain of what he had done to her, of what she might have lived through, and also, quite selfishly, the pain he had brought upon himself.

But, then, something else, another question grew in his mind; who was that girl? The adorable little blond that had left her drawing, which was still in his hands. Don't be foolish, said a voice at the back of his head, you know exactly who she is. The hair, the eyes, everything about the girl was familiar. But he just couldn't believe it.

Suddenly, his friends snapped him out of his daze.

"Jason. Jason!"

Someone was calling his name and the return to reality was excruciating.

"I..."

It was most unexpected, but at that moment, Piper was before him again, this time a look of steel in her eyes, yielding no emotion, and completely denoted of anything about recognising the group.

"I'm sorry for that sirs. A little issue with my daughter," she said sternly, "now, if I could have your orders that would be great."

"Piper..." Jason's voice failed him in the time he needed it the most.

"If I could recommend the quinoa salad, it really is quite delicious."

"Hey Beauty Queen! We'd thought you'd disappeared from the surface of the earth!" Jason had completely forgotten Leo was there too and stared amazed at him.

"I'm afraid I do not go by that name anymore, so if you would be so kind as to tell me your orders and get this over with." There was so much ice in her voice it surprised him. Where was the warmth in her voice, the one which comforted everyone when felling low?

"Piper, how are you? Hazel misses you so much, she would be so happy to see you again-" began Frank.

"I have left behind my last life. As well as anything, or anyone, that went with it. It is just too difficult to live with." She stated. "Now, if you do not wish to order anything, I would ask you to leave. Thank you very much."

"But you can't just escape that life Piper." Percy had been the one to speak. It was as though everyone could talk except him. "I tried to do it, but being, you know what, you just can't escape."

"Well, I have managed so far. And I find that certain you-know-what's as you say are just not worthy of trust. It really is better if I stay away. Now goodbye." And with those curt words, she left them.

The four of them stared after her as she left, so shocked by their brief encounter.

Eventually, another waitress came to take their orders, but Jason's appetite had disappeared, just like the sun, and it was getting colder by the minute, numbing his bones. Also, he had to get back to work, his lunch break was almost over. It took a lot of strength of will to get back to work, his mind kept wandering off and whatever he wrote seemed to be nonsense. The words were swimming in front of his eyes, playing water polo or something like that. He already had dyslexia, but this was just worse. There was no possible way he could work, he decided after having confused the numbers 60 and 70 for the fifth time in the last paragraph he had written.

He went down to the secretary to warn that he felt sick and was going home. Linda stopped him on his way out.

"Mr Grace, there was a package delivery for you."

A package delivery, at his work place. It was quite unusual and Jason immediately worried about what it could be.

"Thank you very much Linda. I'm going home today. I'm not feeling very well. Could you note that somewhere please."

"Of course, I mean, it is my job. Can I get you anything. I have some aspirin in my purse if you would like." She suggested, in a little high-pitched voice which made him uncomfortable.

"No thank you, I'll just take the package."

She handed it over and saw a note attached to it, it read:

Darling brother,

I found this on one of my hunts. It bears the symbol of Jupiter on it and I thought you might like it.

Also, I sent this to your office because the shipping was free.

Love,

Thalia

The box was rather small, it was the sort of one that could contain a book. The box rattled when he shook it and he saw that it was labelled AMAZON. This explained why the shipping was free. He and his sister were still rather close and met at camp over the summer. Artemis always lent (with some difficulty) some of her hunters to help in training the young Demi-gods (though no one was a fool, and they all new that they were also trying to recruit, as always).

The fact he had received a parcel, took his mind of Piper for a while. He returned to his apartment where he opened the box. Inside was a beautiful dagger. A pretty little silver thing than shined in the sunlight. Thalia had been right and he saw the oddly shaped 4 with it's upper left branch curling into a two, engraved on the hilt of the dagger. An intricate design of silver strings were twisted around the place where you held the dagger. The blade was sharp and looked freshly polished. Jason took it in his hand and felt that it was perfectly balanced, but not the weapon for him. It was destined for someone else. He carefully placed it on a shelf near his television, waiting for the owner to come and claim it.

He went into his kitchen which was a small thing at the back of his living room, complete with an oven, a microwave, a stove, a fridge, and most importantly, a sink with it's usual pile of drachmas toppling over next to it. They were still as useful for any conversation. Leo had been working on a phone that could work on Demi-gods, most of them used it now, but nothing is perfect, and they were thoroughly recommended not to use it except in emergency situations that concerned the normal mortal lives they tried to lead. The only thing that Leo had invented that was practical in Jason's life and that actually worked, was the Olympian laptop.

The device successfully did everything like a normal laptop, without warning every monster in a 10 km radius that a Demi-God was in the area. These were extremely practical, and Jason, as well as almost the entire mythological population could now access the Internet. The laptops had had an enormous success and Leo was now quite rich off of his invention.

He grabbed something to clear his head and headed into his bedroom and opened his laptop. He had to find out more about her, he had to know everything that had happened to her ever since she'd left. This was definitely the best way. He needed to see her again, that he knew.

And there was also something else. Rather, someone else.

Rose.

**A/N. So that's chapter 3!**

**Chapter 4 should be out by sometime next week.**

**If you have any ideas/opinions/comments I would love to hear them!**

**Thank you once again,**

**Butterflies765**


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N hey hey everyone!**

**Who's up for chapter 4?**

***holds up sing saying: me! Me!***

**Alright! Let's get on with it!**

**Disclaimer: for some very obvious reasons, I am not Rick Riordan and can therefor not claim anything but the plot.**

Piper's POV

The doorbell rang. Piper put down the puzzle piece she had in her hand. It was a grotesquely cut piece of cardboard with had be industrially painted so that once assembled, it made a picture of a princess. In her end of day fatigue, Piper couldn't make out which princess it was, but she supposed it didn't really matter. Piper really couldn't understand the point of it but as long as it made Rose happy, she would buy it and watch her assemble it and break it down as many times as necessary.

She groaned slightly and pulled her weary body from her comfortable seat and trudged over to the door. Her pains were quickly rewarded when she saw who was at the front door.

"Piper! So good to see you again." Her blond best friend pulled her into a crushing hug. It was the sort of hug that Piper really needed right now and she suddenly felt a lot better. When Rose saw her godmother, she immediately dropped whatever she had been doing and rushed over to join the embrace, funnily enough, the princess was Cinderella, meeting her dear godmother. The two women laughed.

"You say that every time."

"More importantly, I say it because it's true."

"Funny thing is, I almost forget about Macaroni Monday."

"Yay Macaroni Monday!" Shrieked a little voice beneath them. Rose had stars in her eyes. This was probably one of the best times of the week for her, and Piper wholeheartedly agreed. Seeing Annabeth was always a bright side. She didn't know how the other woman did it, but Annabeth always, always had exactly the right thing to say at exactly the right moment.

"Forget Macaroni Monday? How could one possibly do that? Macaroni Monday is when I get to see my favourite little Rose." Annabeth picked up the giggling girl and proceeded to tickle her, augmenting the volume of the said giggles. She was as full of happiness as is a ballon full of air about to pop.

Macaroni Monday was a tradition the girls had started when Piper lived with Annabeth, four years ago. The rule was simple, every Monday, the two of them went and ate macaroni. It could be homemade as well as in a restaurant but it was an absolute necessity. It also allowed time for the friends to get together and talk. Nowadays, the three of them went together, girl time being an essential part to their daily routine, and one time in the week when Piper could be something than else than a mom, even if it only was for an hour and a half.

Annabeth put Rose down and she ran into her bedroom, probably to get the latest drawing she had made and to give it to her beloved Godmother. Annabeth never left without being gifted with the most exquisite creation of the week, which ranged from felt tip drawings to ghastly wooden projects covered in glue, much like her calendar. Annabeth always graciously accepted the present, no matter how many times she had already had exactly the same thing.

"Annabeth, it was your turn to bring the macaroni, right?"

They hadn't eaten macaroni in a restaurant for so long now, because Monday nights were not the time to be dining out late. What generally happened was that one of them brought the good and they ate it in Piper's apartment. They would've gone to Annabeth's place, but since she lived with Percy and Piper was trying to avoid her old life, they never went there. And frankly, it was great for both of them, the task of bringing Rose somewhere else was always extremely worrying for Piper, who definitely was an overprotective mother goose.

"Annabeth, Annabeth. Will you look at my drawing? I made it at the restaurant today?"

Piper took the box of instant pasta of her friend and began to prepare dinner, while Annabeth was forced into another session of intent drawing observation. Her mother casually glanced at the table and saw it was still the same awful drawing. The one where Rose had drawn her family.

She filled a pot with water and turned the gas up, trying to forget what was going on next to her. The steam quickly began to rise, much like the foggiest in her thoughts and confusion popped in both the water and her mind. Being tired on a Monday night wasn't exactly the best way to start he week.

"And this is my daddy."

"Your daddy. Do you know him?"

"No, but I tried to give this drawing to a really nice man today, but that just made mom cry a lot."

"She didn't want you to give the drawing?"

"No, I think she just didn't like the man. But he was very nice."

Annabeth stared at her friend. Piper quickly ducked behind her bangs trying to avoid her friend's questioning eyes.

"Piper..."

"Not now ok?" And she shot a glance in Rose's direction before returning to her meal preparing.

The dinner went fine. Rose's constant drone allowed the others to forget that Piper had burnt the macaroni, thing that rarely happened, only when she was really tired or distraught. Tonight seemed to be both. Piper pretended everything was okay for her daughter's sake and ignored Annabeth's worried glances. When all was eaten and the dishes were done, Rose was getting sleepy, rubbing her eyes.

"Come on darling. It's time to go to bed." She cradled her daughter in her arms and began to walk over to her bedroom.

"Can Annabeth read me a story?"

"Sorry darling, it's getting very late and you have to sleep a lot if you want to be ready to go to the restaurant tomorrow."

"Oh, okay." Piper pulled back the covers on her daughter's bed. They were a simple pink colour with no elaborate kitschy designs. Rose yawned and turned to face her.

"Who was the man, mommy?"

"I'll tell you one day, okay darling."

Annabeth came in and kissed the little girl goodnight. Meanwhile, Piper switched on the lamplight, basking the room in a sweet silver colour with star designs lighting up the roof. As the two women left the room, she slowly hummed Summertime and Rose fell asleep, a look of serene peace on her face.

"Aren't they always sweeter when they sleep?"

Annabeth chuckled, "Of course, as sweet as sugar. No one knows they will give you diabetes. Now come on."

She grabbed her friend by the arm and dragged her back into the kitchen, sat her on a chair and then proceeded to open the cupboard in the search of two wine glasses. This was how Macaroni Monday always ended, red wine and girl talk until one of them decided it was rather late and the other one should be getting home.

Annabeth uncorked the bottle, poured two glasses and then looked intently at her friend.

"Now, spill."

"I saw him again."

Annabeth's eyes widened. They were so huge Piper now felt uncomfortable. She dunked the entire content of her glass and waited for Annabeth's reaction.

"What! Where? Why? How? When?"

"Oh, it was horrible Annabeth. I didn't know what to do. It was in the restaurant. He was there. And there was Percy, Leo and Frank.

"So that's why he was acting weird tonight," Annabeth muttered under her breath before crushing her friend into a hug. "Don't worry Pipes, you can still ignore him, you don't have to see him again. I'll talk to him; make it very clear he should never try to contact you again."

Annabeth, had chosen a very different path from Piper. She had embraced the whole Demi-god part of her life. She was still friends with everyone from the crew. She was actually still going out with Percy. Piper guessed that if you came out of Tartarus with a guy, you just never let go of him. The match-maker part inside her knew that the two of them were eventually going to get married. Annabeth was so lucky in her eyes, she still went to camp and trained the young ones, she still had all her friends, and she had a fabulous boyfriend, a successful career in architecture… Piper wasn't jealous, quite the opposite, she was constantly elated for her friend, but sometimes she wondered if she could have lived that sort of life too.

"You're too kind Annabeth, but it just isn't possible."

"Why not?" A look from Piper gave her the answer and her caring smile faltered.

"Oh…"

"Rose has a right to know her father I suppose; it is written in the law about Children's rights."

"So you will have to meet him again."

"What am I going to do?" Piper wailed, looking back at that, she thought she sounded pathetically childish. What a great example for her child, if even her mother wasn't able to be a responsible adult what was little Rose going to be?, "I don't even know where to get his number."

"What are friends for except helping to annoy your ex? I have his number you idiot!" She said with a laugh. "As for what you're going to do… Drink some more wine and watch Bridget Jones' diary for the third time this month?"

Piper giggled and agreed to the plan. Annabeth always knew how to cheer her up, so they jumped into her sofa, turned on the television and talked until the movie was over, probably not listening to one word that the actors spoke.

Later on, when Piper was in her bed, a huge part of the dread had been lifted off of her shoulders, but she knew that the next day was going to be difficult considering what she was going to have to do. She drifted off into an uneasy sleep, pledged by dreams of monsters she had not had in a very long time…

Jason's POV

Jason was dreaming. Well, not quite, he was having a nightmare, but the verb to nightmare had not yet been invented and so he was dreaming, with all of its flowery, summery, full of unicorns and just generally happy connotations. Unfortunately, his dream couldn't have been farther than that.

Once again, he was in the play-ground watching the little girl play. But he now knew it wasn't just any little girl anymore, it was his little girl, his daughter, Rose. She was humming quietly to herself, piling sand upon sand in a makeshift sandcastle when suddenly the sky turned black. The previous sunny sky turned to storm in a blink of an eye. Jason normally relished storms, but this one made the hair at the back of his neck raise and his stomach twist with dread. He already knew what was going to happen, a unknown monster was going to jump out of the neighbouring forest and attack the little girl. But this time, the usual worry was doubled, no, tripled. This was his daughter out there, and no one should have been allowed to harm her.

The dreaded part came and out creeped the monster from the shadows. Strangely, it wasn't just a dark looming figure, something or someone was taking shape before his eyes. Jason expected to be snapped back to reality any moment now, but nothing happened the dream just went on and on.

The creature that emerged from the dark was actually a woman. Or something similar to a woman. She was so pale she looked like a ghost, the top half of her body only covered with a white cloth. The lower half of her body bore nothing human, it was a massive green snake's tail, the scales gleaming and the end of the tail slithering to cool around her body.

"Rose?" She whispered in an eerie high-pitched voice. "Rose, have you been a good girl?"

The sound of her voice was absolutely petrifying. It made his bones freeze and his ears sing in agony. When he looked at her face, he was overcome with violent nausea. There was nothing were there should have been eyes. Only bloody red empty orbits.

Jason woke up. His hair was sticking to his forehead and the sheets felt as though they had had a vacation in a tropical country. He checked his alarm clock and saw that it was only 6:30. He got up and went over to his bathroom to take a shower, but couldn't shrug off the uneasy feeling the dream had left him.

The warm water soaked through his skin and relaxed his muscles. The burning sensation of water against skin distracted him from the dream he was trying to forget. He knew it was a bad idea to ignore a Demi-God dream but he just couldn't take it. There was way too much going on in his life right now.

As he tugged a pair of pants on, he thought about the discoveries he had made online the night before. Piper had opened her restaurant 3 years ago and it had immediately become a success amongst the twenty year old population in New York, as organic gluten-free food was the fashion. Jason knew that Piper had opened the restaurant according to what she believed and not to follow the trend.

He found it funny that she had chosen to name it "Cornucopia". She might have tried to ignore her past life, but it came running after her and must've been lodged in a deep secret corner of her mind. That cornucopia had been really useful ten years ago, to come to think about it. It was the beginning of their relationship, one that had been founded on a lie. They had tried to fix that, but he supposed it just hadn't been enough.

Well, it had been enough for certain things, he thought to himself as he buttered a piece of toast. Enough for them to create life. Jason was a father. He had never considered having any children before, and the fact that one had been forced upon him had awoken something deep inside of him. A weird feeling that told him he had to care and protect the child no matter what. It changed the way he looked at things, and suddenly he worried about Rose's safety. The dream he had been having sure wasn't a good premonition. He had to do something about it. But first he had to meet the girl, his girl. Gods dammit, he just couldn't get the idea wrapped around his mind. It was so completely unexpected.

He remembered when Frank and Hazel had first become parents, 4 years ago. Come to think of it, Rose and the boy were probably the same age now, though he couldn't be sure. Little Timothy had literally been their only subject of conversation for months and it was hard to talk to Frank without him mentioning the last thing Timmy had done. Well, Jason had always kind of expected that on Frank's behalf, he made such a great dad. They both were so protective, and it was normal, considering the boy had both the blood of Pluto and Mars running in his veins. They had considered moving to Camp Jupiter altogether for his safety but chose to remain in New Orleans for job reasons.

That made him wonder, Rose also had the blood, or rather the ichor of two major gods, who knew how much of a prey she was to monsters? And to think that the girl had never been to camp, she probably didn't even know her heritage... Though it was probably better that way, worry churned in his stomach. One thing was sure he had to met her.

He trudged to work once again, stuck in a repetitive loop that was most unexciting and ding a job that was more than boring. But today was going to be different, tonight after work he was going to try to meet Piper, the woman he had loved for so long, and probably still did, no matter how broken his heart had been.

The weather forecast was most unexceptional as another mostly cloudy day announced itself. Some sun in the south, colder weather in the north, everything was following the normal temperatures for the seasons. Clearly the gods must've been at piece. After the seven had defeated Gaea and the Giants, there wren't that many major threats anymore, so the gods were free to have a little fun and return to their bad habits of frolicking amongst mortals, augmenting the number of young Demi-gods considerably. Since the gods now had to claim their children before they were 12, a lot of them came in when they were even younger. Camp had never been quite such a full space. It also didn't help that Percy was trying to identify a large number of the minor gods. A ton of new cabins had to be built at camp-half blood. Maybe it was better when there was a war going on...

Despite all of this godly meddling, Jupiter almost never visited his son. Not that it particularly bothered Jason, he had been absent from all of his childhood and had abandoned him and Thalia, but he thought that maybe he could've put an effort into it, or suggested Jason took a job at camp...

Finally, the end of the day arrived after painstakingly long hours of worried anticipation. He rushed out of the office, only stopping once to say goodbye to Linda.

"Better already Mr Grace?" She asked seductively. When had her lips gotten so pretty?

"Oh quite. Thank you for asking." Had her eyes always been that blue?

"Oh your welcome. Goodbye!" And her hair looked so- Jason shrugged off the weird thoughts he had been having and remembered he had to go and find Piper. In the corner of his eye, he thought he saw Linda scowl and mutter something like: "next time will be the right." He ignored it, thinking Linda must not have been well today.

Off he navigated into the streets, turning regularly after a block or so. Somehow he knew his way, despite only doing it twice. Things that happen in dramatic moments tend to mark you.

Suddenly, he bumped into someone. There had been a lot of bumping into people lately, Jason must've been tired. Unfortunately, this time, the person toppled over and fell. He had not quite expected that. It was getting dark and Jason couldn't see who it was and he put out his hand to help the person up, regretting he had been the one to push them into a pile of soggy leaves.

In the light of the street lamps, he saw who it was.

"Piper."

"Jason."

"We need to talk." They said at the same time. An unexpected smile be can to etch itself on the corners of Piper's mouth. She was dressed in a long black felt coat, a green knitted scarf carefully wrapped around her throat. A brown dress peeked out of the coat and then came of pair of grey tights and finally some black knee high boots. Suddenly, a shadow came across her face and the smile disappeared below the same scowl that he had seen yesterday.

"Exactly. Now come, I need to get Rose, I left her with the chef to come and find you."

"You came to find me?"

"Wipe that grin off your face and come on!" She huffed.

And with those words, she grabbed his wrists and dragged him across New York so that they could have a conversation. One of Jason's wishes was finally becoming true.

**A/N yay! One more chapter!**

**Thanks to everyone who's read reviewed favourited or followed. It means a lot to me!**

**See you soon,**

**Butterflies765**


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N Hey everyone! **

**It's been some time since I updated, but here is the next chapter of Tears to Water Rose!**

**Thank you for your reviews, follows and favourites!**

**Percabeth rules: I believe this chapter should answer your question. I can see how the confusion could have been made but sorry about that.**

**Disclaimer: The plot is mine, all the rest belongs to Rick Riordan.**

**Piper's POV**

Piper was already regretting her decision. When she had bumped into Jason, the smile on his faced just despaired her even more. She had dearly hoped he would just leave her alone after one small talk, and she and Rose could continue living their lives as they had always done. Unfortunately, something in his expression told her he wasn't just going to walk away.

They didn't talk. The streets were eerily quite. Too quiet, she thought, and she quickened the pace. She had let go of his sleeve, as she knew he was a grown man, and would probably follow her, given the reasons of their meeting.

Finally, she turned onto a familiar street and saw the lights of "Cornucopia". She didn't work on Tuesday nights, thankfully and let the waitresses she had hired do the job. Henri was once again babysitting Rose. Considering that, she decided she probably needed to give him a raise or change his job to chef and babysitter. She didn't think he minded though, those two sort of clicked, and Henri was great with children.

She entered the lobby to the flat, holding out the door for Jason and then proceeded to climb up the felted staircase and up to the third story, where her apartment was. Jason was still following her, something in Piper still hoped all of this was still just a bad dream, and that yesterday's past few events hadn't actually happened.

She fumbled with her purse trying to find her keys. The handbag was made from organic cotton and was surprisingly large, obviously necessary, considering the number of things it held. Her phone, her keys, lip balm... All the usual feminine necessities, there was also a water bottle, tissues, a drawing, a lollipop... All the usual maternal necessities, but she also had something she almost never used and reluctantly handled every time she had to use it, her knife... All the usual demigod necessities.

The keys were completely lost, despite the fact that there was an oversized, childmade key ring on it and she let out a frustrated sigh.

"Do you need help?" Jason asked.

She turned and glared at him. This was definitely not going as planned, well, the only part of the plan she had though about was the one about not being ridiculous. Her icy glare was answer enough. She began to empty the contents into her lap. This really was getting awkward.

"Here, I think you're looking for this."

Jason, once again! Was he trying to embarrass her more? How annoying could he be? But when she turned around she saw he had the gods-dam keys in his hands!

"Where did you?" She began.

"You dropped them, figured you probably could use them."

He handed them to her, pink pompon passing from one hand to another. The moment their hands touched. She felt a shiver go up her spine, something she hadn't belt in years, almost as though she had received a static shock, a tiny bolt of energy, like lightning.

She was pretty sure he had felt it too and turned round, blushing. What was this? Why the Hades was she blushing? The fog of confused emotions thickened in her mind.

She quickly let herself in and invited Jason too. Without closing the door, she told him to sit down on the sofa. She then slammed the door and rested against it for a few moments.

What she had to do was clear, fetch Rose, put her to bed, and... Talk with him. Some part of her wanted to run away from it, but only a very little part, the part that was selfish and egoistical. Rose had to go home, she had to go to bed. Regular bed times are good for young children, she remembered reading somewhere.

Down she went . The second story flat also belonged to her,as it provides a second floor to her restaurant. It was generally quiet at night, as the most important part of the day was lunch. The main clientele was the people who went out for lunch breaks and the students at universities, the age average being around 25.

The renovation of the second floor was quite recent and had successfully enlarged the restaurant, which really was quite popular. She went through the dining part and into the kitchen where her daughter was laughing.

"Hello Rose!"

"Mommy! You're back!" The little girl shrieked and out her arms up to be carried. Piper gladly complied, despite the fact that her daughter was 4 years old (and Piper definitely wasn't getting any younger).

"So, what did you do?" She murmured into her hair, soft blond swirls tickling her nose.

"Henri told me the best story, I was a princess and I had a kitty, and there were flowers, and..." The little girl rambled on, telling the story which had delighted her little heart.

"Thank you." She mouthed over to Henri.

He laughed and replied: "I expect a raise." Which also brought a smile to her face. She bid him goodbye and carried her daughter back up where her father was waiting to her.

She set her daughter down in front of the front door and knelt in front of her so that they were eye to eye, rainbow against rainbow, two of them full of childlike joy and naivety and the other two concerned and overworked.

"Now, Rose, there is a guest inside and you have to be very polite."

"Who is he mommy?"

"No one important, we're just going to talk a bit. You are going to go to sleep."

"But will you read my story?" Rose looked at her with big puppy eyes and Piper recognised a trait in her daughter's voice which she often heard in her own. The beginning of a very feeble charmspeak.

"Now don't speak like that, you know I don't like it." No, she definitely didn't, she knew how much pain it could cause, how much destruction. Its disadvantages clearly outweighed the advantages. Rose was just a girl, she couldn't control it, Piper didn't want her to be how she herself had been as a child. It was better to teach her not too.

"Sorry, but will you?"

"We'll see." Story time had already been neglected yesterday, but today there was... Jason.

She pushed the door open.

**Jason's POV**

Jason was carefully observing his surroundings. When Piper had shoved him in and left him to himself, he had been quite surprised to discover Piper's apartment. As expected, it was quite simple, plain. The main room was split into two halves, at the back was a kitchen with all the usual appliances and a countertop in front where you could sit down.

The other half was the living room space, a simple sofa, with a glass table and a TV in front. Very typical. A couple of things denoted the fact that Piper lived there and that it wasn't just a home decor magazine front cover. On the walls, there were a couple of framed pictures, only ever of Piper and the girl, or the just the girl. Jason recognised Tristan there too, it did seem logical that Piper would keep close contact with her father...

Toys were also strewn across the floor, or put away in a chest. Teddy bears, puzzles, cars... The shelves were filled with books and random memorabilia from places they had probably visited but nothing told of her Demigod life. This was just a normal space for a single woman and her daughter.

He sat himself down, like he had been instructed to. It felt so weird to be in Piper's home. Of course, he had dreamed if this moment for four years, ever since he had broken up with her. A chance to explain himself, to ask for forgiveness, to see her again... Now that the situation had come everything was different, unexpected.

The door opened with a start, Jason turned and saw Piper with Rose holding her hand. His mouth opened as if to say something, but a glare from Piper clamped his mouth shut. He gave her an akward smile and diverted his gaze from her eyes and focused on the other person in the room.

Rose was smiling so brightly. She was dressed in the sweetest Jean dress with striped purple tights. Her blond pigtails were bobbing with excitement, as she seemed to be jumping up and down. Her eyes were sparkling with glee, shining with a thousand colours, exactly the same as Piper's though the expression could not have been more different.

"Mommy! Mommy! It's the man from the restaurant!" She almost shouted. It surprised Jason that she had inherited his own blond hair and fair complexion, though she did seem a little more sun-kissed than him.

"I know Rose. Now bedtime." Pieter said sternly and walked over to the corridor on the left, beckoning her daughter to come after her. There definitely was more than Piper's eyes in the child, her mouth was the same, as well as her brow shifted with every emotion, radiating empathy. Rose's gestures were so similar to her mother's nobody could have said that they weren't related.

Rose crossed over the room, almost skipping and flashed a grin at him.

"Will you read the story mommy?"

Piper look confronted with two conflicting emotions, Jason was almost certain the answer was going to be no. The joy would probably disappear from the girl's face.

He finally found the words he wanted to say. He got up. "I'll read the story." He suggested.

Piper was definitely going to say no, for sure. But before she could say anything Rose shrieked happily and her mouth clamped shut, this time.

"Yay yay yay!" She ran over to him and hugged his legs tightly. An incomprehensible feeling of love and protection came over Jason. "I knew mommy was going to say no! But you can do it!"

Piper looked as though she was about to stab him, but she let her daughter drag him into her room anyway, babbling to herself joyfully. They passed before Piper who had her arms firmly crossed and her brow knitted.

"This is not what we agreed to." She whispered angrily.

"What did we agree to?" He replied, with a bit a cheek, which surprised him, he was clearly being more confident than what he should be.

"I'm only doing this because it makes her happy." And she promptly turned around and stormed off into the kitchen.

She was so cold, it hurt, but he knew it was foolish to think she would be any other way. Hopefully he could still make Rose like him. He discovered her room. It was rather small (and rather pink, rather princess, and rather girly. About as cliché as it could be) with a bed at the back a small space to play and a wooden wardrobe (probably filled with dresses if it followed the same style as the bedroom).

"What's your name?" Rose asked him while gazing fiercely at a shelf of books near her bed.

"Jason, and your's pretty princess?"

She giggled: "I'm Rose, but I'm not a princess. I'm a flower!"

"A pretty flower then. What's the story?"

She scrunched up her face in concentration and then pulled out a colourful picture book. "This one, Mr Jason."

Rapunzel. It was a good choice. Not too long and a fairly simple story. She climbed into the bed and he sat down beside her.

"Once upon a time, a man and a wife desperately wanted a child. The woman became pregnant but fell sick. To get better, she needed to eat a flower called Rapunzel. Fortunately, the woman next door loved flowers, she grew so many that her garden was beautiful. Sunflowers, hyacinths, daisies, roses..."

"That's me!" Rose giggled slightly.

"And most importantly, the Rapunzel flower. The husband didn't have enough money to buy the flower, so he entered the garden and stole one. But the neighbour was a witch. She threatened to kill him. The man pleaded for his wife's life and she agreed to give him the flower, in exchange of their firstborn child. The man agreed, thinking that they could escape her."

"He's so stupid!" Said Rose, frowning. "She's a witch! There's no way they can escape."

"Shh. Let me finish. The child was born. The parent's planned to escape the next day, but in the middle of the night, the witch came into their room and grabbed the child. They fled and disappeared."

Rose was yawning now. She curled into a sleeping position, tightly holding a stuffed bear.

"Sixteen years later, Rapunzel, as the witch had named her, lived in a tower far far away. She had extremely long, blond hair, that swayed out of the window of her tall tower. Everyday the witch would call out "Rapunzel, Rapunzel let down your hair!" And the girl would let her golden hair tumble out, letting the witch climb out.

"One day, a prince saw the witch calling out. Once she'd left, he too cried out: "Rapunzel Rapunzel, let down your hair!" The young girl obliged and the prince climbed up. It was love at first sight. The prince came back regularly, promising to free the princess. The witch found out what was happening. She forced Rapunzel to cut her hair, and told her that the prince was going to get married to some other princess.

"Rapunzel cried and cried. She left the tower to some other hiding place belonging to the witch. The prince knew nothing of this. The next day, he called out once again and the hair was let down. He climbed up, but instead of his love, he found the ugly witch. He killed her but she in return, stabbed his eyes making him blind.

"The prince wandered blindly for four years until one day, he fell down a ditch. A girl found him and brought him to his mother. When he hard the woman's voice, he recognised his true love, who cried over him, and her tears gave him back his eyes. Rapunzel had given birth to a baby girl and the happy family was reunited."

He closed the book. Rose was asleep. When he turned his attention to the door, he saw Piper leaning against the frame, looking tenderly at her daughter. He out the book aside and walked over to join Piper. She, in turn, crossed the room and crouched next to her daughter and kissed her softly, caressing her hair.

Jason looked away, he felt like an intruder. Rose and Piper had such an important bond, this private moment was not meant for his eyes, a stranger to their small family, that Piper had managed to build.

Piper came back and beckoned him into the kitchen. She sat him on a chair opposite her and reached into a cupboard taking out two glass wines. She poured herself one and offered him one.

"No thank you. I don't drink." He softly added: "anymore."

Piper looked at him funny, he couldn't quite decipher her expression. She sat down, her choppy brown locks covering her face. She took a sip and then looked at him straight into the eyes, those kaleidoscope eyes locked in his.

"So."

The words were stuck in the back of his throat, awkwardly coming out: "umm. Rose. Is she?"

"Yours?" She laughed quietly, it was mirthless, almost sarcastic. "Styx yes. 50% of your DNA. If you consider that enough to be called 'your's'."

The disgust in her voice was palpable. "Did you know when-"

"I left?" She once again finished his question. "No. But it wouldn't have changed anything. Who wants an alcoholic, cheating father?"

He didn't say anything. That hurt. She knew how his mother had been. And someone her son had ended up exactly the same. But the horrors he had seen... That was a pathetic excuse, Piper had seen the same things, and she had coped far better.

"Look," she continued, "if you want-"

"I don't drink anymore." He butted in.

She stared. "Well, good for you, at least one good decision in your life. I bet you and Drew are really hitting it off. Going for the sister. You've gotta admit that really was a low blow. "

"I haven't talked to her in years." He argued, "I haven't even seen her in years."

This clearly threw her off. Her eyes clouded, the way they usually did when she was desperately thinking something over. "Ok. But if you want to get to know Rose, or shared parenting, or whatever, the answer is absolutely no."

"Have you even told her anything?"

"No! Of course not! I don't want anything from that part of my life to ever be revealed to her!"

"It's inevitable."

"No it isn't!" She stormed. "It's been four years and there has never been anything! Apart from a few petty monsters, weak and easily destroyed, there hasn't ever been anything. No godly intervention, no terrible prophecies, not even a single ominous drea-" She suddenly it off her sentence and looked blank.

"The point is, Rose will never ever be a Demi-God."

"They decided to tell Timothy from the begging and everything had gone fine for him." Jason quietly counter-argued.

"I couldn't possibly care less about Timothy! I won't let anything happen to her!" Piper was livid, her breath ragged. Suddenly, she stopped looking at him like she wanted to make him eat his father's lighting bolts, just for a moment there was puzzlement. "Who's Timothy?"

"Frank and Hazel's boy."

He saw her mouth the words again and a tiny look of sadness, remorse, crossed her eyes before returning to her death glare.

"No, no, no, no, no. That's final. I don't want this. Now get out."

"But-" she dragged him across the hall.

"I. Don't. Care. Forget all about this. Forget we even talked. This was a terrible idea."

She had opened the door and Jason felt a huge despair begin to well up inside him. "Piper."

"Forget Rose." She snarled, her voice laced with charmspeak, jutting into his brains like tiny little pricks, forcing his memory.

The door slammed in his face. It took a couple of minutes for him to clear his mind and remember why he'd even come here, but all came back soon enough.

He walked home, his heart heavy, full of crushed hopes and a nagging sense that something bad was about to happen.

**A/N thank you for reading!**

**I hope you liked that ominous, but totally predictable ending!**

**See you soon,**

**Butterflies765**


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N hey everyone!**

**Sorry I haven't posted in a long time, and thanks to all those who reviewed, followed, favourited or even just viewed this fanfiction.**

**This is a bit of a short chapter, but a turning point in the story.**

**Happy reading,**

**Butterflies765**

**Disclaimer: (almost forgot this) I still do not own Percy Jackson and the Olympians.**

**Piper's POV**

Piper was in the playground, the one where she usually went on sunny Friday afternoons with Rose. It had a kitschy red slide, a small sandpit, but most importantly a swing set. This was Rose's absolute favourite. Every time they came, she would beg and plead until Piper finally agreed to push her for a couple of minutes, which generally lasted more like thirty minutes.

Eventually, Piper would stop, her arms aching and then Rose would carelessly swing more a couple minutes. Piper had learnt to keep a close watch on her daughter, because otherwise she would get up and swing and swing and swing, so high, she was certain the girl was going to fall.

That never happened. Rose seemed to be in her element, playing with the wind that disheveled her hair, and if you looked carefully, she sometimes looked as though she was flying. It was far too dangerous for a little girl, thought Piper. It also got worried looks from other people surrounding them. Kids staring at her daughter in admiration and parents staring at Piper as though she was the most irresponsible mother ever.

Unwanted attention. Piper thoroughly discouraged this sort of behaviour from Rose. So she could only use the swing set with her mother, who only pushed her very softly. And then it was strictly forbidden to go on it again, much to the 4-year-old's deception.

But today was strange, Rose was on the swing set, cautiously wobbling a little and Piper was sat on a bench next to her. This wasn't normal. Piper wanted to get up and stop Rose, but she was like stuck to her seat.

Suddenly, a shadow began to form in the shrubbery nearby. It was happening again. Fear clutched Piper, it's long sharp nails clawing into her brain, blocking out everything else around her. The shadow began to shape a head appeared. It was beautiful, flowing brown hair undulating around her, soft curves in the nose and mouth. Only one thing ticked, the bloodshot red eyes, gleaming with folly.

The rest of the creatures body appeared, a normal feminine top half and underneath, gleaming green snake scales, slithering and shimmering. It was oddly beautiful and incredibly hypnotic.

Piper's brain was screaming at her: MONSTER ROSE MONSTER. But she couldn't move anymore, the thing began to cackle:

"Ro-ose!" She whined in a sing-sing voice. "Have you been a good girl?"

The little girl looked petrified. Something unlocked inside of Piper, the nails retracted from her brain and her voice found its way in the bottom of her throat: "No!"

The monster turned, it was now facing her. Rose got up and ran to Piper, desperately clutching her legs.

"Oh Piper!" She giggled maliciously, "did you really think you could escape?"

The creature lunged at both of them and Rose's scream was shrill in her ears.

Piper woke up with a start. Only a dream, only a dream. 5:30 announced the clock next to her bed. Still so much time until she had to get up. She couldn't go back to sleep anymore, that would be impossible.

She got up and walked over to Rose's room, cautiously cracking the door open. She peeked through, the little darling was still there. The pounding in her heart began to slow down, her breathing became less ragged. It had been years since her Demi-god dreams. Ever since she had left that world, nosy he dreams had come and plagued her sleep. Nothing. But now, everything was coming back.

First those dreams, then Jason, then her using charmspeak. It was horrible, she had sworn to herself not to use it ever again but it had come out involuntarily. And such strength, she had even been surprised she could speak that powerfully... She had willed it that much since the Giant war... Everything was changing in her life.

Frank and Hazel had a child now. It still surprised her. It had been three days since Jason had told her but she couldn't get over it. Why hadn't Annabeth told her. Sure, she didn't want to know anything about her old life, but her old closest friends had had a baby. Shouldn't she get to know about that?

She suddenly realised she was being extremely hypocritical, she too had a child and only Annabeth knew... But then again, she had good reasons. Ones Jason clearly didn't understand. She deeply regretted bringing him over. And she'd even let him with Rose for a moment!

True, it had surprised her when she' sheared he didn't drink anymore, and wasn't seeing Drew but he was definitely a responsible mature person. And he wanted to tell Rose the truth. There was no way that was going to happen. No more thinking about Jason.

And it was time to wake Rose now.

A few hours later, Piper had finished her shift. It was three in the afternoon. The lunch service was almost over. She would come back at six to work her dinner shift, as Friday was the only day, with Saturday, when she worked the dinner service. There weren't that many customers at night, and the most important days were those two, so it seemed fitting that she should work then. And therefore, Friday afternoons were special mother-daughter bonding time (not that they already spent a lot of time together).

Rose kept asking questions about the strange man who had come over on Tuesday and it was starting to annoy her. But she was only a child. Her own sweet adorable child. So she could bear the questions, after all it was normal for young children to ask questions about strange things in their everyday life. Rose hadn't gone through the why phase, but maybe it was starting.

Now this was a nice Friday autumn afternoon. Picture this: chilly air, no wind and a beautiful strong sun. Autumn leaves falling everywhere in shades of orange and yellow. About as cliché as you can get but absolutely breathtaking. Still, it was a lovely afternoon to go and play in the park, maybe go to the playground...

She shuddered at the thought, her dream still ever present in the back of her mind but she shrugged it off. Demi-God dreams were silly. As silly as the fact that they should come back after Jason's appearance. Pure and simple coincidence.

Or not? Murmured something at the back of her mind, like a worrisome monster. Ignoring her inner demons, she gently woke the sleeping no child up, tied her shoelaces, buttoned up her coat, tugged on a hat and put a chocolate chip biscuit in her chubby little fingers. The look of glee on Rose's face was adorable, her sweet tooth was growing by the day.

Piper grabbed her handbag and they were out, Rose softly skipping, talking to herself and stopping next to every leaf to pick it up, examine and then keep the best one to present it to her mother. This was now part of Piper's ever growing leaf bouquet. Another thing were conkers.

They arrived at a path were there were a lot of conkers lying on the floor. Other children were busy collecting theses useless, but shiny seeds so she let Rose run off and join them, not before carefully observing all of them, as well as their parents.

Good job, she bought to herself. Playground avoided. She sat herself down on a bench, fanned out her coat at picked at invisible dust, a habit she had when she was particularly nervous or worried.

Rose seemed happy. And that was essential.

Suddenly she heard the familiar click of high heels and someone sauntered up and sat down right next to her, a huge wave of perfume making her dizzy. Guess who it was.

Today was a usual Aphrodite day, gleaming blue eyes and perfectly done hair, with a certain Marylin Monroe style. Pink lipstick perfectly applied and well as eyeliner. The rest was completely natural as expected. Because if the goddess of beauty didn't have naturally long eyelashes, beautiful jawbones and the most gorgeous tan than mortal women could now officially cry in joy.

Basically, as breathtaking as usual. All the men in the vicinity had their eyes glued on her, especially since she was wearing an obscenely large pink hat, with a pink crop top, pink mini skirt, pink feather boa and knee high black leather boots. Totally inappropriate for the weather, but Aphrodite was a goddess. And she was hot.

Piper ignored her blatantly. It has been 2 years since her mother had deemed honour her with the gift of her presence, and most of the time it was to tell her to wear more makeup or get a love life.

Both of those were never going to happen, and clearly the goddess wasn't interested with being a grandmother, as she had probably been a thousand of times before. Or maybe not.

"Piper darling!" She exclaimed. "It's been such a long time!"

"What do you want." Piper cut bluntly.

"Piper! Don't be like that! I'm your mother!" The excess of imaginary exclamation points wearied Piper.

"Mother, the only time you've ever come to visit is when you thought I desperately needed some romantic action in my life, or when you wanted me to get something for you."

"Don't be ridiculous!"

"So why are you here?"

"What if I just wanted to see my darling granddaughter. I bet she had the most marvellous charmspeak like yours!"

Piper shuddered at the word. "I hardly believe that you want to visit. And you know very well there is never ever going to be anything mythological is Rose's life."

"Fine." Aphrodite pouted, which was extremely attractive, to all the other people in the park except Piper.

After a moment of silence where Piper was happily ignoring the deity next to her, Aphrodite began to talk again. "So I heard you were talking to that Jason boy again."

"Mother!"

"You two were so cute together! Not as cute as Percabeth of course, but still very sweet. When are you going to get back together?"

"Do I need to reexplain every single decision I've made in my life. That is the only thing that is never going to happen in my life. He's a cheater and a drunk, and frankly we just don't have anything in common! I don't know why I ever fell for him. We, are never getting back together."

"If you start spouting Taylor Swift lyrics, it just means you want to get back together!"

Piper glared at her. "It won't happen."

"Not if I can help it." Aphrodite muttered under her breath.

"What?"

"No, nothing darling." She smiled sweetly at her daughter. "Oh! And I just remembered! I really want you to go fetch this thing of mine soon enough!"

"You mean go on a quest? Isn't camp half blood filled with young Demi-gods just dying to go on a quest?"

Aphrodite giggled melodiously, attracting herself a lot of attention. "Well, Zeus is calling me back. Toodles my darling! Oh! And wear more makeup, you've been looking pale lately."

Piper groaned and watched her strut off, all eyes following her until she couldn't be seen anymore, probably dissolving into nothingness before regaining Olympus.

Suddenly, she panicked. She hadn't been paying attention to Rose! Where could she be? Was the dream happenings? Where was she? Fear coursed through her veins until a small chubby hand tapped her lightly on the shoulder, before proceeding to dump a pile of conkers into her lap.

"Mommy! Look at all the conkers I collected!"

Piper's heart beat calmed down and she internally let out a relieved sigh before smiling to her daughter. "Well, these are the prettiest and shiniest conkers in the park! Well done Rose!"

The little girl gave her a toothy grin.

"Who was the pretty lady?"

"Oh, no one."

"There are so many no ones."

"Really like who?"

"Jason. You said he was a no one. The pretty lady is a no one. How can they be a no one when I can see them?"

Piper stared at her daughter, dumbfounded. She tried to muster up some explanation but the words were stuck in her throat, she didn't like lying to her daughter, even when it was necessary. So instead of using a fight approach, she chose flight and bought her daughter a far too expensive waffle.

It was covered in chocolate, mini marshmallows, fudge and random strawberries were also strewn for good measure. It felt bad ignoring the questions, but if peace was to be preserved this way, then ignoring it was going to have to be. Also, waffles from time to time wasn't such a bad thing, especially considering how much sugar elated Rose, something she had never quite understood.

There was now chocolate in the girl's hair. Piper reached into her bag to grab a couple of wet whites when her finger was nicked by her dagger. That dagger had been blunt for years now. It shouldn't have been able to cut anything.

Yet Piper was sucking at her finger, metallic filling her mouth while her daughter trotted away, chocolate spreading.

What was going on exactly? First Jason, then her mother, then this bloody knife?

And just at that moment, her phone began to ring.

**A/N I promise you next time will be Jason's POV.**

**Hope to post soon and thanks for reading (don't hesitate to review)!**

**Butterflies765**


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N Hey everyone!**

**It's been quite a long time hasn't it? *laughs nervously* **

**Well, I've had a couple of complications namely school and influenza but here I am again with a brand new (slightly shorter, sorry guys) chapter!**

**Yay! Thanks you to everyone who reviewed, favourited, followed, read or just plain clicked on the link!**

**So I hope you enjoy this.**

**Jason's POV**

Jason's day had not been going very well so far. Saturday's were generally casual days. No work and all of that beautiful nonsense people call weekends, and are generally enjoyed. But of course, being the lucky guy Jason usually was, not everything could be that black and white.

Contrarily to what many people seemed to believe about his life, the weather does not just stop during the weekend (on second thought, maybe Jason could ask his dad about that...) and Jason also had the unfortunate responsibility of having to work for his weather channel on those days, when work-free people really wanted to know wether or not they could go to the beach, take a hike through the forest, or maybe just stay in and read. All of these deliciously appealing activities, were of course forbidden to Jason.

So there he had been that morning, filing through endless, complicated weather forecast that were probably all nonsense anyway, because Olympus was a riot, and endlessly thinking about Piper, and Rose. He had done such a good job trying to ignore Piper for all of those years, trying to forget her, trying to move on. But all that had been a joke, his inner self was continuously daydreaming about how he would meet her by accident and make everything up to her, and then his life would be wonderful again, and he would live happily ever after, and their would be no monsters, no quests and no annoying gods... His inner self had a tendency to ramble.

If he had talked to anyone about this, they would probably have qualified it of on obsession. But it wasn't an obsession. To Jason, the term obsession had such ugly connotations. He preferred to say he was "passionate" about them. Passion was much better. (Though he knew from his Latin lessons that passion actually came from "patior" meaning suffering, so maybe obsession was better...).

But now that his daydreaming has become a reality, he was completely lost. This was nothing like he has ever thought of. The idea that Piper could possibly have been pregnant was so absurd, that the living proof of it, also know as Rose McLean, was astounding. But for nothing in the world would he have not had that child.

Suddenly, a huge amount of cleavage was thrust into his face.

"Hey Mr Grace." Linda slurred.

His mind took a moment to respond, after being so drastically forced to think of something else that Piper and Rose. Also that he had a very low-cuff don't in front of him. He lifted his eyes, taking care not to show that much blush. "Oh hey Linda!"

"Now, what are you doing here on a Saturday?" She asked, hoisting herself on top of his desk, proceeding to spill a pot of pens, not that she seemed bothered. There now was a very exposed thigh in front of Jason's face. Linda took the term mini-skirt to another level.

"Ummmm." Jason stuttered. Something about the whole situation was very fuzzy. "I'm working. I have to work."

Linda pouted. "Work. How boring." What the heck was she doing here anyway, if it wasn't working, thought Jason. "How about we leave and we go get a waffle?"

Jason gulped. "Linda. As much as your offer sounds tempting," he tried to sound as professional as possible, "I need to work. So do you."

More pouting, but suddenly a sultry smile. "Oh, well, I suppose we could go buy that waffle after work." She twirled a loose strand of bleached hair around her finger. "I finish at 5."

Now that was a good argument. Appealing to Jason's sweet tooth twice was a good move. He nodded eagerly and she sauntered away, her hips swaying seductively. Jason was bemused. Fuzziness was filling his brain, the entire conversation had been quite strange, but Jason thought nothing of it. When he looked back at Linda, her curves seemed to blur, but that was just his imagination. He had already had that feeling somewhere, but he couldn't exactly place his finger on the exact memory... It sort of confused him, but not so much. He had a date!

And that's when he realised that he had been writing a report for tomorrow, based entirely off forecasts from 5 years ago. Jason groaned. There was still a lot of work to be done, or rather, redone. But it was all okay, because Linda was smiling at him whenever she passed by, her long legs seeming miles before his eyes.

Had he looked back on the situation, he probably would've noticed how his thoughts on Piper and Rose had disappeared really, really quickly. Unfortunately, such a thought wasn't going to cross his mind as it was already filled with the image of a certain secretary.

Finally, the clock's needles rolled around, as if it were sighing, and Jason could call it a day. He walked up to the front desk, where he knew he was going to find Linda. She was on the phone but hung up immediately when she saw him. Jason frowned, she looked funny, like as if he had taken his glasses off, but it wasn't the case. He shook his head and Linda looked fine again, if not more than fine. Somehow, she had found time to change, into an even more revealing, and even shorter dress, this sort of apparel would technically not have been considered proper to Jason, who was a stickler for rules, but his mind overlooked that.

"Shall we?" He asked politely.

"Oh yes!" She giggled. "Let's go!"

They walked over to the park, which wasn't that far. Well, Jason walked, Linda just seemed to cling to him and hope he carried her. There was a slight Autumn chill in the air. The one that nips at your nose and makes your fingers beg for a pair of gloves. Linda was only wearing a very light coat, something more for spring, and Jason seriously wondered how she wasn't cold. Her arms clinging to his seemed to radiate warmth, it was all quite strange.

When they arrived, there was a food truck quite practically just at the entrance. Jason bought a XXL waffle with marshmallows, and chocolate sauce, and sprinkles, and strawberries, and literally any other topping you could buy (and/or afford, though money definitely wasn't going to stop Jason from indulging). Linda only ordered a coffee, and when Jason ate his waffle, she seemed to gleam enviously at it.

"Would you like some?" He offered.

"No thank you." She pouted, which was quite adorable. "Can we go somewhere warm? It's freezing."

Had Jason been more aware of his surroundings, he would have been annoyed that Linda hadn't taken anything to eat, even he could tell he wanted too. Generally, girls who refused to eat for fear of getting fat, annoyed him. But right now, he was a lot more interested in the fact that she had subtly hinted at seeing his apartment.

"Sure. We could go to my flat."

"Great." Linda's eyes shined with excitement. No, not excitement, it was something sort of cruel, something that seemed to say: I've won.

They walked/clung back to his flat and once inside, Linda's gaze changed. It was like she was analysing everything, checking the whole room for something, looking, intruding. She went through he whole house quite mechanically. Gone were the sultry looked from before, and those seductive smiles. Now, there was just a cold and concentrated person, going through his belongings like she owned them already.

Jason was about to comment on the strange behaviour, when suddenly she stepped back into the hallway, seemingly finished with her observation.

"Thank you," she said calmly, iron in her gaze, "Goodbye." And she called the elevator before disappearing.

Jason was still in front of his apartment, without even having taken a step inside when the elevator bell chimed, belching out a warning of closing doors and into Jason's slightly confused ears. He walked into the small place he called home and glanced around, positively bemused at what could possibly have frozen Linda into such a state. Frankly, there was nothing peculiar or particularly frightening (except that one picture of Leo in a suit, now that was positively terrifying, who knew he could dress up?).

Something glinted in the corner of his eyes, catching his attention coldly in a clasp of silver. Oh. The dagger. Right.

Now, he had learnt over the years that keeping weapons ms in sight of mortals was not a good idea, and it often resulted in trips to the hospital or the end of what had been a blossoming friendship. Or a failed date like in this case. The Mist, with its somewhat tainted sense of humour thought that carrying various types of weapons and/or and I arsenal could easily be explained using a normal mortal context and henceforth did not request really it's divine works.

He walked over to the shelf and took the gleaming silver into his hands and weighed it out once more. This was not made for him, he'd already established that, and despite what Thalia had said, he was pretty sure it would fit her like a glove, after all, it was quite light and Thalia was stuck at the adolescent stage, not getting any younger. It was made for a small hand, but the blade was quite particular, on one side it was only smooth and sharp, so sharp that if you ran your finger over it, blood would stain the iron, whereas the other side was jagged metal, more like a saw and just as deadly.

He looked closer at the intricate design on the handle and observed the delicate silver strands were twisted into stunning arabesques that formed an overall gracious form. The mark of Jupiter shined like the moon in the morning sky against the dark shadow of his cupped hand, eerily reminding him of his sister. He closed his palm and covered the dagger with a cloth before hiding in behind a frame of him and his colleagues from when the channel had celebrated its 25 years. It was extremely boring and dust had collected on it, carefully layering over the bland bored faces of mortals. Perfect. Now that sure wouldn't scare any dates away.

He stepped back to admire his handiwork and suddenly heard a small cough behind him.

Sitting on his sofa was the most beautiful woman he had every seen, spools of glossy auburn hair cascaded down her shoulders and down to her waist. She had the fairest skin he had ever seen and lips so red he wondered for a moment if it wasn't actually blood. Her eyes were glinting all the colours of the rainbow ever changing, kaleidoscope eyes.

"Jason darling!" She exclaimed, pearly whites appearing as she dazzled him with a smile that could have made any man turn mad. He was quite frozen in surprise and could barely utter a couple of words.

"Have we met?" He managed, while his brain omitted more important questions such as how did you get in, what are you doing on my sofa, would you please leave, which are generally the type of responses a human utters when they find a perfect stranger in their house.

The woman sighed and stretched out her long legs before pretending to flick some sort of imaginary dust off her 15 inch high sandals (yes she was wearing sandals despite the fact that they were in November and that it was really, really cold out there). "No I don't suppose we have. Or maybe we have, such meetings are so trifle, I always seem to forget them. Anyway, shame though, you are quite handsome."

She seemed to be emanating a sort of power that made it impossible for Jason to concentrate on anything else apart from her. "Umm..." He stuttered.

"Well, you know my daughter quite well, so cute you were, not quite as cute as the other two, what's their name already? Oh right, Percy and Annabeth. Absolutely adorable those two."

Jason gave her an intent look, this random woman was sitting on his sofa and rambling about how cute his friends were. Now that could only be one person.

"Your daughter."

"Oh yes, you should know her, Piper, I saw her the other day, that was nice and..."

"Piper."

"No, my other daughter Nikita!" She sighed exasperated. "Of course Piper! Why do you think I would be here if I wasn't talking about her!"

Realisation struck Jason and he knelt before the woman, head bowed in resignation as he had been taught. "My lady Venus, how may I be of service to you?"

A smile played against her lips and she uncrossed her legs to recross them the other way around. "It's Aphrodite at the moment darling, but finally someone who knows how to properly greet an Olympian. I must tell your father that he raised a good child, so much unlike mine! Piper never greets me the way she should, maybe you could teach her that when you see each other? Oh and if you had some champagne in a golden chalice, that would be rather lovely."

Jason got up again. Politeness could only go too far. It's not like he particularly appreciated the gods, they sort of had ruined his life so he wasn't going to be Aphrodite's slave. "I am sorry my lady, I do not own a golden chalice nor champagne. What is the purpose of your visit."

She harrumphed. "What makes you think I came for something, what if I just wanted to visit!"

"Excuse my brunt ways, my lady, but frankly, I am not one of your children and so far in my life, godly intervention has only led to dangerous and somewhat futile quests. You must understand I learn from experience."

"What a silly idea! No, no, no! I just wanted to tell you that you were going to be wanting something from me, very soon, and wanting it very badly. But my favours aren't free. So if you were to go get this little trinket of mine I lost recently..."

Ah right. He had found the purpose of her visit. "I am sorry my lady, but vague prophecies of any sort aren't quite on my list at the moment. As for your trinket, I am quite sure camp half blood is bursting with young eager demigods who are much more willing and better trained to go on this quest. Now if you'd excuse me, I have business to attend to."

Aphrodite frowned and got up, her size growing and earning more importance. "You will regret your impertinence, young demigod. And you will need that favour, trust me. And you will go on that quest, you can be sure of that too." She shrunk back to a normal human size. "Oh well, must be going! Ta-ta my dear Jason! Send my love to Piper and the sweet darling Rose!"

There was an explosion of glitter and the goddess disappeared. Pink glitter was floating everywhere. Jason hoped the goddess thought she was funny because he sure didn't, cleaning glitter was very annoying and rather a tedious task.

Her ominous predictions worried him and he hoped he wouldn't have to be subject to her for some sort of impossible task for a favour he was apparently going to need, well that was just Aphrodite for you. Meanwhile, he had other things to do, namely one, Taking care of the Linda incident, all while trying to figure out what Piper meant to him, truly.

**A/N sooooo. What did you think?**

**Don't hesitate to review, constructive criticism is always appreciated and motivates me to write quicker.**

**See you soon, (hopefully, hopefully).**

**Butterflies765**


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